{"id":24515,"date":"2024-12-08T05:15:24","date_gmt":"2024-12-08T12:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/weekend-roundup-montezuma-county-area-basketball-wrestling-seasons-underway\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:55:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:55:20","slug":"weekend-roundup-montezuma-county-area-basketball-wrestling-seasons-underway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/weekend-roundup-montezuma-county-area-basketball-wrestling-seasons-underway\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekend Roundup: Montezuma County area basketball, wrestling seasons underway"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The Dolores boys basketball team picked up its first win of the season at the Thunderbird Invitational, defeating La Veta 64-46. (Journal file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Dove Creek and Mancos square off in boys basketball<\/div>\n

The Bulldogs crushed the Bluejays 42-20 in non-league play at the Mountain Top Invitational in La Jara on Saturday. The victory capped a 2-1 start for DC to open the Teresa Martin era. The Bulldogs also topped Sargent 41-29 the night before.<\/p>\n

Mancos is 0-3 to begin the season, also losing to Sargent (43-37) and Centauri (67-6).<\/p>\n

The Dolores boys picked up their first win of the season at the Thunderbird Invitational, defeating La Veta 64-46.<\/p>\n

Dove Creek will join Dolores (1-3) in the Rangely Holiday Tournament, while Mancos will host Ignacio in its home opener on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Montezuma-Cortez (2-1) made their way down to the Antelope Canyon Holiday Classic in Page, AZ and fell short to Shadow Ridge Stallions in the first round, 60-52, but won their next contest against the Parowan Rams, 45-37. A road trip to Blanding awaits Mike Hall\u2019s group, with a Tuesday night contest against San Juan.<\/p>\n

Area girls basketball teams open season<\/div>\n

The Montezuma-Cortez girls basketball team (1-2) made their way down to Shiprock for the Jerry Richardson Memorial Invitational.<\/p>\n

The Panthers opened with a commanding 57-5 victory over Shiprock Northwest, thanks to junior Sariah Jackson\u2019s career-high 23 points. However, Montezuma-Cortez lost 52-25 to tournament host Shiprock and 35-33 against Bloomfield.<\/p>\n

In the tournament semifinals, the Chieftains took control and outpaced the Panther defense in the second half, thanks to a series of successful 3-pointers. Shiprock outscored Montezuma-Cortez 24-10 in the third quarter and finished the game, 52-25.<\/p>\n

Against Bloomfield, Montezuma-Cortez led by nine points in the second half, but a late charge by the Bobcats helped them to surge past the Panthers. In spite of a game-tying 3-pointer by senior Kalea Ogo, the Bobcats drained late free throws to steal the win.<\/p>\n

Montezuma-Cortez will travel to Blanding, Utah on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Dove Creek (1-2) and Dolores (1-3) picked up their first wins of the season.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs bounced back from a couple tough season-opening defeats, topping Mancos 45-25 at the Mountain Top Tournament in La Jara.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Mancos started its season 0-3 under first-year coach Julie Oliver. Dove Creek will gear up for another holiday tournament in Rangely next weekend, while Mancos opens the home ledger with a contest against Ignacio on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The Bears earned first-year coach Taralee Hufstetler her first coaching victory, as the Bears toppled Sangre de Cristo 31-15 in the Thunderbird Invitational in Mosca. However, Dolores also came up short against Centennial (31-25) and La Veta (48-15). Dolores will travel to Rangely next weekend.<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez's
Montezuma-Cortez's Keaton Curleyhair works to pin Aztec, New Mexico's Ayden Platero during their 126-pound bout Saturday, December 7, at Bayfield's Wolverine Classic. Curleyhair made the stick official just 25 seconds in, and then pinned BHS' Mason Valencia in only 19 ticks to finish a fifth-place 3-2 at the weight. Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Montezuma-Cortez's
Montezuma-Cortez's Ashton Orr squares off against Bayfield's Coan Naranjo during their 144-pound bout Saturday, December 7, at BHS' Wolverine Classic. Orr would lose by pin, as he finished with a fourth-place 1-3 event record at the weight. (Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dolores'
Dolores' Daniel Jacket attempts to control Kirtland, N.M., Central's Memphis Thomas during their bout in the combined 190\/215-pound division Saturday, December 7, at Bayfield's Wolverine Classic. Jacket would lose by pin, giving him a 2-3 event record and fourth place. (Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dolores'
Dolores' Nathan Hill pulls Montezuma-Cortez's Orion Martineau down towards the mat during their 150-pound bout Saturday, December 7, at Bayfield's Wolverine Classic. Hill would prevail by pin in an elapsed 1:48, and post a fourth-place 1-3 record at the weight (Martineau ended up a fifth-place 0-4). Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Montezuma-Cortez girls wrestling opens with a bang<\/p>\n

The Lady Panthers scored a third-place team finish at the Wolverine Classic in Bayfield.<\/p>\n

The Panthers posted a pair of victories, as CeJae Snyder won the 110-115 weight division, while Aubrey Rutherford won the 155 weight class. The Panthers showcased eight athletes in the tournament, with Baylee Molzahn taking third in the 100-pound division and Paislee Mestas (120) placing third. Montezuma-Cortez narrowly missed out on the team title, scoring 77 points, just behind Durango\u2019s title-winning 88 points.<\/p>\n

Dolores, Montezuma-Cortez and Dove Creek opened their seasons at the Red Rocks Invitational in Moab and the Wolverine Classic boys wrestling tournament in Bayfield.<\/p>\n

In Bayfield, Montezuma-Cortez junior Rusty Snyder was took second in the 138 division, while Teagun Samora (113) and Ashton Orr (144) each claimed fourth place in their weight classes.<\/p>\n

For Dolores, sophomore River Wickstrom claimed second place in the 157 class, while Daniel Jacket (190) and Nathan Hill (150) each placed fourth.<\/p>\n

In Moab, Dove Creek earned top-four finishes from all its participants, led by Konnor Spigner\u2019s title at 157, runner-up finishes by Frankey Montoya (215) and Cael Beanland (132), and a fourth-place effort by Chad Kline (144).<\/p>\n

Bear wrestlers Zaiden Hanson (126) and Kale Gates (165) posted third place efforts for Casen Eldridge\u2019s squad.<\/p>\n

Dove Creek standout Teagan Larimore was the runner-up in a loaded field in the 138-weight class at the prestigious Jerry Benson Tournament in Arizona.<\/p>\n

Several area teams will travel to Montrose this upcoming weekend.<\/p>\n

Ben Bradley contributed to this story. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dolores boys basketball team picked up its first win of the season at the Thunderbird Invitational, defeating La Veta 64-46. (Journal file) Dove Creek and Mancos square off in boys basketball The Bulldogs crushed the Bluejays 42-20 in non-league play at the Mountain Top Invitational in La Jara on Saturday. The victory capped a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,39,28,679,680,642,2587,37,36,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-high-school-boys-basketball","tag-high-school-girls-basketball","tag-high-school-sports","tag-high-school-wrestling","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78562,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24515\/revisions\/78562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24515"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}